The Second Avenue Saga

The project won't end in 2014, though there will be small victories

Waiting for Godot plays on Broadway, and Second Avenue subway construction grinds away on the Upper East Side.

Some day, the project will end.

But for 2014, at least look for some quieter disruption in the neighborhood. The MTA announced late last year that it was done with the last of the big tunnel explosions uptown, a relief to residents who have had to acclimate themselves to constant noise. Local businesses, meantime, have largely either adapted or moved on (as, apparently, have the rats, which once were a menace but now seemed to have found better accommodations elsewhere).

That's the good news. The bad news is that the project is nowhere close to being done; the MTA's official projection is that work on the East Side branch (there's still three more phases in development!) wil be completed by 2016, which likely means some time beyond.

And the street closing and construction noise and truck traffic continue.

And Waiting for Godot? It ends its run on Broadway in March, no matter what.